Blog > 2011 > December

ZoomDance Winter Session
Thursdays, January 12 – March 1

ZoomDance classes at Studio34 are offered at a sliding scale of $90-$110 for the whole 8 weeks, which also gives you unlimited access to all the ZoomDance classes around the city. Or buy a 5-class card for $70, no expiration. For more information, please visit the ZoomDance website at http://www.zoomdance.com/.

10:30am – 11:15am Thursdays, 1.5-3 years
ZoomDance: This is a high energy class of dance, music, story-telling, imagination and fun! Over the course of the session, children will develop agility, coordination, rhythm, and balance through a dynamic range of actions. There is an emphasis on creativity and building confidence through songs, stories, and performance. Each week we’ll read a new story and then explore the movement and adventures of the characters. Kids have the opportunity to show off their favorite moves, invent characters, and try lots of new movement ideas. Grown-ups are encouraged to participate in this class with their small dancers.

4pm – 4:50pm Thursdays, 3-5 years
Intermediate ZoomDance: This class has the same essence as the younger ZoomDance class, with lots of energy and focus on exploring new ideas. We will start to push the edges of dancing the spectrum from wild abandon to careful details. In addition to learning trickier “moves”, we will start thinking of phrases and dances instead of only individual moves, and students will perform for each other in class. When acting out the story, our teachers will encourage students to offer their own ideas too. Grown-ups drop off their dancers for this one, and are invited in on the last day to see what we’ve been working on.

Creatively Inspired: Poetry of Yoga Book Release and Open Mic
Friday, November 11
7:00pm – 10:00pm
FREE

Please join us on this magical evening as Studio 34′s very own Brittany Policastro celebrates being published in a very special book: The Poetry of Yoga. This is a compilation of poems and short stories from those inspired by the beauty of yoga. People from literally all over the world have offered pieces and I am so honored to be a part of this right next to some of the most influential yoga teachers in the world including: Shiva Rae, Rod Stryker, Krishna Das and Seane Corn.

This FREE event will consist of the following:

A powerful and passionate yoga class led by Brittany with amazing music by Steven Groff: 7:30-8:45pm- If you want to be a part of the class but not participate the doors will be open for you to watch and listen.

Lots of delicious food lovingly prepared by Brittany.

Readings from the book The Poetry of Yoga

Then the stage will open for anyone to share your hearts, your words, your music and any other creative bursts you feel. Music, poems, dancing, story telling encouraged!

Buddhist Meditation Classes
Mondays 7:00-8:00pm
November 14th-December 19th
Suggested Donation $5-8
Conference Room of Studio 34

Join us for a weekly beginners meditation class on Monday evenings. We will be examining the Buddhist approach to making our lives more manageable and happy through utilizing the power of our own peaceful mind. This class begins with a relaxation meditation, a brief teaching on Buddhist topics, and ends with another energizing meditation. The topic of each class will be:

Nov 14- Learning to meditate
Nov 21- Nature of the Mind
Nov 28- Reducing Stress
Dec 5- Buddha’s Four Noble Truths
Dec 12- The Anger Problem
Dec 19- Living a Meaningful Life

This 6 week series of classes is being offered by Amitayus Kadampa Buddhist Center (www.meditationinphiladelphia.org) at Studio 34 and will be taught by Salena Alberti, a meditation teacher who has over 10 years experiencing practicing and studying Buddhism.

#Occupy Feet Active! with guest DJ Mr. Jennings (RVA, PLF)
Friday, October 21 at 9:00pm – Saturday, October 22 at 2:00am
Suggested Donation $ 5-10

This month, we’re proud to bring you a musical guest who sure can. I speak of crunkologist and bass-slinger extroidinaire Mr. Jennings (Richmond, PLF). Conway Jennings is a super talented young producer and DJ, who may have inadvertently triggered that earthquake last month with his enormous, hand built bass rig. Good thing we’ve got a pristine new system with plenty of low end power for him to rock on.

To make good on my earlier pun, listen to Conway’s newest mashup: http://soundcloud.com/mrjennings/phil-collins-crunk-in-the-air

Ginkgo and Lina Luv will support and bring the Feet Active global booty bump.

We’re also very happy to have Feet Active MVP Brittany Policastro back to teach yoga.

Laura will astound with vegan cupcake delights, as always.

Schedule:
Yoga with Brittany: 9-10PM
Barefoot Dancing: 10PM – 2AM

Bring: comfy clothes, hoops/poi/staves/whatever, friends

Suggested Donation $ 5-10
No booze

About Conway Jennings:
Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, Mr. Jennings brings a diverse blend of crunked out bass music, with a circus twist. With a strong background in classical piano and trombone, Mr Jennings is always working on new productions to weave into his sets. Glitch hop is the foundation, and variety is the spice of life. Picture swing piano, Balkan horns, tribal percussion, and nasty bass, all mixed up in a cauldron and blasted through a wall of subs.

The community and ethos of Burning Man have had a huge impact on his musical endeavors. As a founder and key organizer of the Party Liberation Front, Mr Jennings brings the PLF’s good vibrations to venues and festivals up and down the East Coast. In addition to headlining parties from Raleigh to Boston, he has shared the stage with awesome acts such as Shpongle, Eoto, Eskmo, Nosaj Thing, Designer Drugs, King Britt, Nigel Richards, and Dave Nada.

In addition to playing events and parties, Mr. Jennings hosts the Crunkfederacy, a bi-monthly radio show on Glitch.FM from 1-3am EST every 2nd and 4th Thursday.

As a professional fire spinner, Mr. Jennings has taught classes and performed at events all over the East Coast, most notably at the Virgin Music Festival for Nine Inch Nails.

For info, updates, and downloads:

Website –> get official
www.mr-jennings.com

Anssumane’s class:
African Dance
Sunday 3:00p – 4:30p

0ctober’s African Dance class special! Bring 2 new students and your class is FREE!

Anssumane began his dancing career at the tender age of 11. He has since danced professionally for over 18 years with the National Ballet of Guinea Bissau. He career has lead him to perform for Dignitaries, Ambassadors and Presidents from around the world. Anssumane has performed in Mali, Senegal, The Gambia, South Africa and Libya. Hea choreographed two dances for the Kulu Mele African Dance & Drum Ensemble. The longest-lived African Dance company in Philadelphia, Kulu Mele has built a repertoire that is an exciting blend of West African ancestral tradition and African American creativity.

Anssumane has garnered numerous awards for excellence in dance performance and teaching. It is paramount to Anssumane that each class participate understands each dance style and believes in an open and comfortable dance environment. He is very excited to teach the traditional and contemporary dance style (Bijagos, Balanta, Fula, and Manjaco) from Guinea Bissau and for people to enjoy themselves while learning a facet of culture from his county.

Since arriving in Philadelphia in 2008, Anssumane has toured with the Voices of Africa Drum Ensemble to the Mid West and has performed throughout the Tri State Area. In October he was a featured artist for the Pennsylvania Council of the Humanities Arts Road Show. His professionalism and accessability has made him a sought after instructor for children and adults.

Assumane is featured in the PNC Humanities on the Road “Healing African Dance:”

Games for Actors & Non-Actors
3 Hour-Long Drop-In Classes
Mondays Oct 10, 17 & 24, 2011
7:30–8:30 p.m.
Donation: $5-$10 per class

Come play games! In these fun classes we will bring together an assortment of games and exercises that can be used with any group. Whether working with kids or young adults in a classroom, actors or dancers on a stage, organizers and activists fighting for a cause, or even friends or family in your community, these games can be a useful tool to bring people together while thinking outside the box. Time and space is available after each session to strategize how we use these games in the work that we do.

To come to these clases, give us a heads-up by emailing tophilly@gmail.com or calling 215-730-0982. The games are active—please wear comfy clothing. All are welcome, no experience needed.

Playing the Cop in the Head
A Theatre of the Oppressed Performance
Friday, October 14th, 2011
7:30 p.m.
A free event • donations welcome

THE COP IN THE HEAD is a Theatre of the Oppressed technique that deals with internalized oppression. Whenever we stop ourselves from doing what want to do or saying what we need to say, there may be discouraging voices and experiences from our past that hinder our actions. In this interactive performance, we’ll take these “cops” out of our heads and deal with them one by one, with the aim of disarming them altogether.

FOR MORE INFO please call 215-730-0982 or send an email to tophilly@gmail.com

Restore
Saturday, October 15th, 1:00—2:30pm
Saturday, November 12th, 1:00—2:30pm
Saturday, December 10th, 1:00—2:30pm

Restore is designed for people experiencing stress, crisis, or trauma in the service to others. Participants include social workers, counselors, childcare providers, teachers, professors, health care workers, and community activists; all who struggle with stress are welcome Restore offers a safe place for personal growth. Each session introduces guided-discussion through poetry and stories, life-giving conversation, and soul-sustaining practices participants can use in their daily life.

Light snacks will be served. We are happy to provide childcare if you email us by the preceding Thursday.

Facilitators: Jim Schroder and Joy Howard

Please email if you have questions or would like more information: restore@vineyardwestphilly.org

Kids Yoga Class Series
with Lily

Six-Week Series – $60
(no class 10/31)
Drop-ins are welcome for this series!

Mondays 3:45-4:30 (ages 4-6)
In this fun-filled class, kids explore breathing exercises, games, poses and relaxation. They are introduced to communication skills in a playful, inspiring style to support themselves, their classmates, and their families. Class ends with relaxation to send kids home renewed and replenished.

Mondays 4:45-5:30 (ages 7-12)
Students explore ways to maintain balance in both their minds and bodies in this interactive, fun class. They learn how yoga can influence other aspects of life by
building emotional intelligence, boosting self esteem, and inviting challenge through group and partner activities. This is an engaging, inspiring class that includes breathing exercises, games, poses and relaxation.

Slide Presentation:
Sri Lanka: A Journey in Images
Sunday, October 16
7:00 pm
Suggested Donation: $5

This island nation, so close to southeastern India, has its own distinct character and culture. Healing from 26 years of civil war, and devastation wrought by the tsunami of 2004, Sri Lanka welcomes visitors to experience its treasures.

Join travel photographer Margie Politzer on a visual journey to a land with vibrant culture, misty mountain towns, Buddhist cave temples, and white sandy beaches. Hear about history, present-day issues, and day-to-day travel experiences in this captivating country.

“Clothe Yourself in Righteousness”
Release Party
Sunday, October 2
8:00pm – 10:00pm
$10 suggested donation

With the Spirit as their guide, Jon Watts and Maggie Harrison set out in 2010-2011 to bring their ministry of nakedness into an appropriately authentic public format. For Maggie, that meant exploring old texts over long hours in various Quaker libraries, exploring Nakedness in her own spiritual life, and writing a devotional pamphlet.

For Jon, it meant searching himself and engaging with his muse to write the songs for an album, always asking “what canst thou say?”, with the underlying intention of radical authenticity… or nakedness.

For both Maggie and Jon, the work was difficult. The transformation was real. The product is inspired… and they’re done! Let’s celebrate!

The project is to be released this Friday, Sept 23rd on the internet:

www.ClotheYourselfinRighteousness.com

…and in Philadelphia on the 2nd of October. Come. Hear some music. Talk about nakedness. Yes.

$10 suggested donation gets you a CD and a Pamphlet (valued normally at twice that). Can’t beat that.

Studio 34 Presents: Sweet Sound of Music
Special Small Houses CD Release Show with Super Special Guests Hezekiah Jones and Chris Bathgate
Saturday, October 22 @ 7:30p
Doors at 7p. Music will begin promptly at 7:30p! Arrive on time, you’ll not want to miss a thing!
$10 Suggested Donation ~ Hot Cider, Sweet Teas and Simple Syrup Spritzers on us!

We are incredibly excited to host the return of Small Houses to Philadelphia! And the return of Small Houses and Hezekiah Jones to Studio 34!

This will be a special Small Houses Philly CD release show. Last year Small Houses and Hezekiah Jones came together at Studio 34 to create a magical evening of music infused sweet melodies and the warm vibes of cozy music-lovers stretched out on pillows and couches. If you missed it then, be sure to not miss out this time around. If you made it to their last show, we know you’ll make it back.

Small Houses

Small Houses is a Michigan-based indie/folk project featuring the songs and poems of Flint native Jeremy Quentin. Artfully crafted finger-style guitar playing, and softly sung melodies describing the people, love, and homes of Quentin’s life.

“This band ‘Small Houses’ is a new ’Top Discovery’ for 2011. These songs are the handiwork
of gorgeous—yet simple— arrangements, skillfully played and sung. If you love beauty and have a need for a respite from the general cacophony of life, check out ‘Small Houses’.” – Heroes of Indie Music

Hezekiah Jones

Hezekiah Jones is the musical nom de plume for Raphael Cutrufello and a band of like-minded musicians crafting alternative folk music. His catalog of songs sometimes sounds like a post-apocalyptic White Album, as covered by Sufjan Stevens. The biting, sometimes campy vibe only serves to intensify the blow of his sucker-punch ballads. Songs are filled with outlandish characters, imagined landscapes, ringing harmonies, and baroque instrumental flourishes, but never disconnect from the tangible feelings at their center. -Peter Marinari(CBS Local)

Chris Bathgate

Chris Bathgate is an American singer/songwriter originally born in rural Iowa, raised in rural Illinois, and currently residing in Pinckney, Michigan. He began drawing attention as a solo artist in 2005 upon the release of his first album, Silence is for Suckers, after a slew of self-produced EPs / Singles and a stint in the short-lived (but much loved) group The Descent of the Holy Ghost Church. Chris has gone on to produce many EPs and 4 albums, most recently “Salt Year”.

“A skilled purveyor of lovely gloom…If Bathgate has mastered one thing in his young and enormously promising career, it’s the art of distilling alienation into bruised-sounding beauty.”
-Stephen Thompson, NPR – January, 2008

Funtown and Studio 34 present…

Beginning Hoop Dancing | 6-Week Class Series with Jen Web

Spin your way to improved health and happiness with hoop dance! Jen Web will teach you the fundamentals of hoop dance and plenty of mesmerizing tricks that you can incorporate into your own dance style. Strengthen your body as you learn to spin the hoop around your waist, neck, hands and legs. Meditate and relieve stress as you discover your inner rhythm. Hoop dance is the perfect mind/body exercise for those who want to get fit and have fun!

* Hoops provided for class use and for sale on site!
* Bring lots of water!
* Please wear fitted, comfortable clothing and sneakers.

For more info visit:
http://www.funtownproductions.com